“Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Now I’m filthy rich. I won’t run out of contribution points again—not even until I graduate.”

Merlin looked at the card in his hand with satisfaction.

It contained one and a half million points. With the additional million, he now had two and a half million points—enough to buy almost anything in the academy.

He slipped the card back into his pocket, then turned to Lucius.

“Why are you still here? Do you want me to beat you up?”

Merlin pretended to raise his right hand. Lucius trembled in fear and hurried after his older sister.

Merlin chuckled softly. Lucius was truly a coward, nothing like his character in The Lost Hero.

But Merlin knew why. The trauma he had inflicted on him ran too deep to heal.

Even so, Merlin didn’t care. Once he managed to win over Rosaline, he and Lucius would become brothers-in-law.

Just imagining Lucius’s desperate, miserable expression was enough to make Merlin laugh inside.

“Merlin, are you okay?” Monica’s worried voice came from behind him.

He turned to look at the girls, who were watching him anxiously.

“I’m fine,” he replied calmly. “Geran is too weak to hurt me.”

His tone sounded dismissive, but it didn’t disgust them. On the contrary, they felt relieved.

“It’s already night, and we all have class tomorrow. Go back,” Merlin said, waving his right hand.

The girls looked reluctant, but he was right. After exchanging a few more words, the four of them turned and walked away.

The other students quickly dispersed as well, and the courtyard soon fell silent.

Merlin stretched his stiff body and whispered, “System, give me the reward.”

“[Ding! Mission successfully completed! Reward has been granted. Please check your inventory, Master!]”

Merlin opened the system shop and saw that his system points had reached 335,000. There was also a legendary weapon, though its form and name were still unknown.

He tapped it, and it began to glow brightly. At the same time, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind.

“[Ding! Congratulations to the Master for successfully obtaining 1x Talisman of Evil Spirit Banishment (Legendary)!]”

“Oh?” Merlin raised an eyebrow. “It’s been a long time since I got this talisman.”

The Talisman of Evil Spirit Banishment was a single-use item. He remembered having one in his inventory.

Although he had never used it, there was no harm in having another.

Perhaps in the future, it would become indispensable.

With nothing else to do, Merlin turned and headed back to his dormitory.

…

Morning…

“Umm…”

Merlin pursed his lips and turned to the side. Suddenly, he felt something soft against the palm of his right hand.

Furrowing his brow, he squeezed it again, and the same softness returned.

“What is this? It feels like mochi,” he muttered weakly.

He slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, but after a few moments, it began to clear.

“Huh?”

His body froze. Sitting on the edge of his bed was a stunningly beautiful girl in a maid’s uniform.

Her hair was silvery-white, and several silver scales lined her cheeks, neck, and forehead.

Her sharp eyes were fixed on Merlin’s hand, which was resting on her right chest.

“Can you take it off?”

Merlin snapped out of it and quickly pulled his hand away. He sprang up and stumbled backward in panic.

“Y-You… what are you doing, Nysera!?” he asked, flustered.

He hadn’t expected to wake up to something like this.

Nysera smoothed her clothes, which had become slightly rumpled from his grip, then stepped away from the bed.

“I’m here to fulfill my duty as a maid. Didn’t we agree on that yesterday?”

Merlin blinked in surprise. He remembered making that offer.

He had thought Nysera would refuse, but it seemed she had accepted—and even kept her word.

Letting out a deep breath, Merlin rubbed his temples and said helplessly, “At least knock on my door first, okay? That really startled me.”

He glanced at his right hand, feeling embarrassed. The soft thing he had been holding was Nysera’s right chest. He had to admit, it was incredibly soft—almost like mochi from his previous world.

“I knocked on the door, but you didn’t answer. So I had no choice but to come in and wait for you to wake up,” Nysera said with a shrug as she walked over to the desk.

“Eat first. I bought breakfast from the cafeteria earlier.”

Merlin looked at the desk and saw a tray holding five pieces of bread, a large glass of soy milk, and a plate of neatly sliced fruit.

As far as he remembered, the cafeteria didn’t serve anything like that. Had he remembered wrong?

He pushed the thought aside, got out of bed, and walked over. After sitting down, he turned to Nysera.

“Have you eaten yet?”

Nysera nodded. “Yes.”

GURRRL!

The rumble of her stomach suddenly broke the silence. Both of them froze, and the room fell into awkward quiet.

Nysera tried to keep a calm expression, but her cheeks—and even the tips of her ears—turned red like tomatoes.

Merlin chuckled softly, but he wasn’t trying to tease her. After all, she had prepared breakfast for him.

“Sit down. I won’t be able to finish all of this,” he said.

Nysera wanted to refuse, but when she saw Merlin’s firm expression, she swallowed her words.

She took a chair near the window, pulled it beside him, and sat down.

Merlin picked up his personal glass and poured the soy milk into it.

“Drink it while it’s still warm,” he said, handing it to Nysera.

Nysera accepted it, looking dazed. It was Merlin’s glass. If she drank from it, wouldn’t that be the same as indirect kissing?

Just the thought made her feel embarrassed.

“[Ding! Heroine Nysera’s affection has increased by 5 points! Current affection: 50 points!]”

Merlin was startled by the sudden system notification. He glanced at Nysera and noticed her flushed expression.

Then his gaze fell on the glass in her hand, and he immediately understood.

‘Pfft… could she be embarrassed?’ he muttered inwardly, chuckling softly.

The Nysera he remembered was strong-willed and fearless. She had even dared to challenge Catrine on the arena stage without hesitation.

Although she had been defeated in the end, she had still stood her ground and challenged him.

But now, Nysera seemed like an entirely different person.

‘Could the defeat she suffered at my hands have changed her this much?’ Merlin wondered.

Shaking off his thoughts, he took five pieces of bread and handed three of them to her.

“Eat. There’s something I want to ask you,” Merlin said.

Nysera looked surprised when she saw him give her three pieces of bread. She opened her mouth to speak, but Merlin spoke first.

“How did you get into my room?”

The ground floor was guarded by that old woman. By common sense, it should have been impossible for Nysera to get past her—especially as a girl.

There was a strict rule prohibiting members of the opposite sex from entering each other’s dormitories.

If caught breaking it, the punishment would be severe. Expulsion from the academy wasn’t impossible.

Nysera remained silent for a moment as she took a bite of bread and chewed.

“I came in just fine. The supervisor let me in when I told her I was your fiancée.”

“Cough!”

Merlin choked, coughing violently. Wiping the soy milk from his lips, he stared at Nysera in shock and asked in a trembling voice, “W-What did you just say? F-Fiancée?!”

Nysera nodded calmly. “Yes, fiancée. That was the only way I could get into your room.”

Merlin fell silent, completely at a loss for words.

A fiancée status was not something to be taken lightly—it was sacred and highly significant.

Fiancé referred to the union of two families into one. Take himself and Luna, for example.

They were both known as fiancés, and no one questioned it because it was real.

But now, Nysera was claiming to be his fiancée, which was clearly very dangerous for him.

“Y-You…”

He wanted to scold her, but the words caught in his throat.

He remembered that Nysera was a dragon. Her logic and way of thinking were clearly different from those of humans.

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, his expression turned serious as he warned, “Don’t do that again next time, okay? It’ll cause misunderstandings.”

Nysera nodded. “I know. You don’t need to worry.”

Merlin: “…”

‘If you know that, why did you do it in the first place?’

He wanted to say it, but it felt awkward, so he swallowed the words and continued eating instead.

They talked casually afterward, including matters related to Calystron.

But deep down, Merlin was speaking to Lyserra.

“Can you help her awaken her bloodline?”

In truth, Merlin never intended to rely on Calystron for Nysera. Instead, he wanted Lyserra’s help—a dragon far stronger than Calystron himself.

“Hmmm… it’s difficult,” she replied.

Her unexpected answer surprised Merlin.

“Difficult? Does that mean it’s impossible?”

“It’s not that it’s impossible, but I cannot bestow my blessing upon someone I do not acknowledge. So I cannot help her.”

Merlin processed her words and found them understandable.

Unlike Calystron, Lyserra was a true dragon, not merely a manifestation of natural forces.

Although she was now a spirit guardian, that did not change the fact that she was still a true dragon.

On the other hand, Calystron was not truly of the dragon race. He was a dragon spirit formed from the energy of nature itself.

“Then do you think Nysera can awaken her bloodline?” Merlin asked again.

Lyserra fell silent for a long moment before answering, “No.”

“No?” Merlin raised an eyebrow slightly. “Why not?”

Lyserra let out a small sigh and replied quietly, “Because she’s a flawed dragon.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep